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- Date Released: August 2, 2005
- Genre: Electronic
- Label: Echo / The Echo Label Limited
One of the great art-pop albums of its era
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We Say...
The life of this debut album from the singing half of dance-pop duo Moloko is a perfect example of how the music business has changed in the internet era. Initially released in 2005, Ruby Blue bombed commercially, confusing fans of Moloko club anthems like "Sing It Back" and lacking a hit single. Thankfully for the Irish chanteuse, television producers disagreed, with four of the album’s tracks backdropping the drama in the second season of Grey’s Anatomy. The album’s fortunes were then truly revived by internet word-of-mouth, as choreographed routines to "Ramalama (Bang Bang)," "Night of the Dancing Flame" and the title track, plucked from reality show So You Think You Can Dance and MTV Italy talk show Very Victoria, became cult YouTube hits.
So… what did TV cool-hunters and web crawlers hear in Ruby Blue that radio and club DJs didn’t? The answer is a visionary take on dance-pop, with Murphy’s soulful, Annie Lennox-esque vocals wedded to the brassy, ebullient art-funk backdrops of leftfield jazz producer Matthew Herbert. In should-have-been-huge single "Sow Into You," for example, a joyous love song is made out of disco, techno, Earth Wind & Fire-standard horns and multi-tracked Murphys teasing the sweetest counter melodies out of a stunning update of early ‘80s electro-soul in the D-Train/Peech Boys mould. By the time last year’s disco-dominated and more successful follow-up album Overpowered had arrived, early ‘80s dance sounds were de rigeur. Ruby Blue was both a couple of years ahead of its time, and a little too experimental to find favour with 2005’s mainstream audience.
Herbert is fond of unusual instruments, encouraging Murphy to sing while hitting everything from hair-sprays to dulcimers and then fitting them within dense textures where traditional song structure gives way to something far less predictable. Fuzz guitar or deep funk bass or thundering tribal beats rear out of the mix, giving edge to Murphy’s elliptical takes on the perennial subjects of life, love and sex, inspired by her relationships with Moloko partner Mark Brydon and Ruby Blue sleeve artist Simon Henwood.
Moloko’s downfall was a lack of connection between the jazz-flecked experiment of their albums and the pure disco of their hit singles. On Ruby Blue, Murphy and Herbert succeed in forging that connection between head and body music, and the resulting dayglo noise stands as one of the great art-pop albums of its era. -
They Say...
As brilliant as Moloko could be -- on both their most eccentric and most conventionally pop moments -- their albums never quite jelled into something as uniformly great as Roisin Murphy's solo debut, Ruby Blue. By teaming up with producer Matthew Herbert, who remixed Moloko's "Sing It Back" back in the I Am Not a Doctor days, Murphy keeps the alluring sensuality and unpredictable quirks that made Moloko unique, without sounding like she's rehashing where she's already been. Both Murphy and Herbert are artists who are equally at home with the wildest and most accessible sounds (and especially when they bring those extremes together), so their reunion on Ruby Blue feels very natural, and gives the album a smoother, more organic sound than might be expected from a debut. Herbert's concept was to build the album around Murphy -- not just her gorgeous voice, but her life as well, and Ruby Blue reflects this with his skillful, witty use of environmental sounds throughout the album. Coughing, rustling, and other studio noise become a rhythm that in turn unfolds the gorgeously summery keyboards of "Through Time," while the more literal-minded "Dear Diary" surrounds Murphy with everyday noises like ringing telephones, buzzing doorbells, and what sounds like a ball bouncing on pavement. As quirky as the album might be -- and it doesn't get much quirkier than the spring-loaded, tribal rhythms of "Rama Lama" -- Ruby Blue never feels off-putting, because its flights of fancy are in service of the songs instead of distracting from them. The mix of '20s-style hot jazz and cool synths on the surreally sexy "Night of the Dancing Flame," the title track's elegant mischief, and "Sow Into You"'s crisp layers of vocals and brass are all mini-masterpieces of avant electronic pop. Indeed, the first two-thirds of Ruby Blue are almost too smooth, too perfectly realized to be the work of someone involved with a group as eccentric as Moloko was, so more experimental, unruly tracks like "Off on It" and "Prelude to Love in the Making" almost come as a relief (and act as a palate cleanser before Ruby Blue's striking piano ballad finale, "Closing of Doors"). As Murphy herself sings on "Through Time," "Could there be such a thing as beautifully flawed?" Ruby Blue flirts with perfection and settles for being the perfect start to the next phase of Roisin Murphy's career instead.
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| 01. |  |
Leaving the City |
4:49 |
|
| 02. | |
Sinking Feeling |
3:32 |
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| 03. | |
Night Of The Dancing Flame |
3:26 |
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| 04. | |
Through Time |
5:58 |
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| 05. | |
Sow Into You |
3:56 |
|
| 06. | |
Dear Diary |
5:50 |
|
| 07. | |
If We're In Love |
4:31 |
|
| 08. | |
Ramalama (bang bang) |
3:35 |
|
| 09. | |
Ruby Blue |
2:48 |
|
| 10. | |
Off On It |
5:22 |
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| 11. | |
Prelude To Love In The Making |
0:53 |
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| 12. | |
The Closing Of The Doors |
3:29 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 48:09 Total Length
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Credits
- David O'Higgins - Saxophone // David O'Higgins - Sax (Tenor) // Geoff Smith - Dulcimer // Geoff Smith - Drums // Alex Smith - Assistant Engineer // Simon Henwood - Art Direction // Simon Henwood - Paintings // Alexis Smith - Assistant Engineer // Róisín Murphy - Producer // Mandy Parnell - Mastering // Max DeWardener - Bass // Max DeWardener - Bass (Acoustic) // Phil Parnell - Piano // Phil Parnell - Fender Rhodes // Peter Wraight - Flute // Peter Wraight - Trumpet // Peter Wraight - Flugelhorn // Trevor Mires - Trombone
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